Working Relationships
by VG LittleBear
Summary: This is an on-going collection of stories on relationships from Gibbs' point of view (POV) - there is no chronological order, and spoiler warnings apply for seasons 1 to 11 - please check chapter titles for more info. NB: The double meaning of the title is intentional ;)
1. First Impressions (team) s01-s11

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

A/N: This is an on-going collection of stories from Gibbs' point of view across all aired seasons.

**Working Relationships**

(by VG LittleBear/vglb)

First Impressions

The first time they met, Gibbs was undercover, and DiNozzo wanted to arrest him. Tony called him a dirtbag and chased him when he ran away. Then Gibbs was on his back, and swung a fist into Tony's face. DiNozzo pulled a gun on him. Later at Baltimore PD, Detective DiNozzo learnt that Gibbs was a Navy Cop. His name, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, had Tony in stitches. 'Gibbs', was quickly settled upon. They got the man they were after, but then DiNozzo had an epiphany. Stunned, the Detective realized his friend and partner must be corrupt. Gibbs followed him to Danny Price's appartment where he found Tony looking mad, and lost. It was that last expression that gave him an inkling of things to come.

Agent Caitlin Todd on board of the day's former Airforce One took Gibbs at first for the ME's assistant. Doctor Mallard, DiNozzo, and he had pretended to be locals. It didn't take her long to catch on though. After assuring Gibbs she could grow male equipment like frogs, Kate shook hands on letting NCIS have the lead on the investigation, and allowed the plane to be flown to Washington, DC. Until her Secret Service superior countermanded her, but by then Gibbs had Kate ready to stitch his rules on cushion covers. Including Gibbs' rule number 12, although she had gotten that one all on her own.

McGee not only had green eyes, he was as green as a NCIS case agent could be. Stationed at their office on the Norfolk Naval Base, McGee at first barely registered on Gibbs' horizon, except as comical relief. The kid tried to warn him off from speaking to a cranky submarine Squadron Commander. When Gibbs got into his personal space, McGee did answer his question, albeit in a whisper: 'I'm sure you can be difficult too, Sir'. He learnt to call him 'Boss' quick enough, even got out whole sentences when encouraged. Gibbs' team seemed to like McGee, hazing, and Tony calling him by McNicknames. Gibbs truly couldn't appreciate the academic's techno babble, but the SSA sure liked the geek's results! Timothy McGee had even gotten a tatoo to impress Abby with, leaving DiNozzo gaping as he caught the elevator to Abby's lab.

While Gibbs was talking to Jenny - former lover turned Director - Shepard, Ziva David had shown up at NCIS. 'Mossad', said Tony, when they mutually brought themselves up-to-date on the females standing in their bullpen. Gibbs distrusted her wild and sensuous looks while Ziva kept insisting that Ari was infiltrating Hamas, not working for them. Gibbs didn't care, he knew Ari needed to be dead. Jenny liked her though, so taking a chance Gibbs challenged Ziva to keeping him safe. And Ziva did, only then telling him that she had shot her own half brother in his basement.

The NSA Analyst was sitting on the floor amidst her papers, obliviously rocking to the beat in her eardrums. Situational awareness was not her forte, so much was clear to Gibbs. Finally she turned from the paper in her hand and jumped. The first thing out of her mouth was the Ellie Bishop rule about earbuds and flashing the desk light. A woman with rules, now that Gibbs could relate to! She answered their questions almost faster than Tony and Gibbs could pose them before sitting down again. When a second pen showed up, Gibbs closed the phone and pulled her up again. Saying it was her playbook, he had her follow him back to the Navy Yard.

- tbc -

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this first installment. Reviews are most welcome! TIA.


	2. Worries Without End (Tony) s01-s03

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Set in time: NCIS early season 4 (2006)

Spoiler warning: 1×20 "Missing", 2×10 "Chained", 2×22 "SWAK", 3×08 "Under Covers".

_**A/N: First of all thanks for reading, and special thanks for your feedback! I had several ideas for the next story in 'Working Relationship', but finally Tony grabbed the reins of my imagination. I immediately knew which episodes I wanted to include, but it's not so easy to get into Gibbs' thoughts when he tries so hard to keep them to himself. So I took my time, and here is the result.**_

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Worries Without End

'No one gets in trouble quite like DiNozzo', the thought crossed Gibbs' mind on Saturday morning. Funny how his mind worked, even when his team was off rotation.

When Gibbs had woken from his latest coma a few months ago, his mind had been back in 1991 but his hair had been grey when he'd expected it to be mostly brown. And he'd had no memory of Tony. He knew that had thrown Tony for a loop. The retired Marine recovered most of his memories when Ziva shocked him back into the present, but it had taken him a while to put his memories back into chronological order.

Gibbs had been back from Mexico for some time now, but his feelings were still topsy-turvy. He couldn't always connect situations with the emotions he knew had been there, as his grief for Shannon and Kelly was back to full strength, and whatever acceptance time had left him with was gone. When he had looked into his mirror earlier, his thoughts had flashed to Tony. Gibbs knew that he needed to follow his thoughts to fully recapture the closeness he'd built with his Senior Field Agent over the years. Grabbing a cup from his kitchen cupboard, he filled it with coffee he had set brewing earlier. It was still early morning, and he had time to simply sit and think.

The first time he had really been worried about Tony, Gibbs thought, was the night DiNozzo had fallen off the grid during surveillance work on the Atlas case. They had had their sights set on the missing Marine's CO. In the middle of checking in, Tony had suddenly dropped off. The SSA remembered that he had felt like a tiger in a cage, nearly driven mad not knowing where to search. Until next day when the CO's car had been located outside a sewer. Gibbs had had no way knowing that their suspect would turn into the final victim. A woman out of the CO's and Atlas' common past had been systematically killing off their old unit to avenge her friends' accidental deaths. Atlas had been ailing by the time DiNozzo had joined him in captivity. Only Tony's resourcefulness and support had kept Atlas going. When it was all over, Gibbs couldn't have been prouder of his SFA, if Tony had been a Marine himself.

With a wry smile Gibbs recalled Tony fishing for a verbal expression of his feelings. He'd told DiNozzo that he was irreplaceable, only to show him McGee sitting in Tony's place. That had been callous, but irreplaceable didn't even start to cover what Gibbs felt for Tony, even if he hadn't wanted to admit it at the time.

But one serial killer after DiNozzo was not enough! The next worrisome event had not been far off, recalled Gibbs, taking another sip of his cooling coffee.

Gibbs had thought Jeffrey White was but a thief. Looking to locate stolen Iraqui antiques, the SSA had allowed DiNozzo to volunteer for an undercover mission as escaping prisoner. While Tony had lived out his version of 'The Defiant Ones', Jeffrey had turned out more dangerous than anyone could have guessed. Following Tony's bread crumbs, Gibbs had found White's own partner in crime dead, and the fugitives gone again.

Gibbs remembered having gotten increasingly desperate for finding Tony alive. When he had caught on that phone calls from an unknown number came from Tony, Gibbs had started up the car with renewed hope. Only to lose DiNozzo's trace again, as well as his patience with his home based team. To his relief, Abby and McGee had come through with the buyer's location. At the end, Tony had sat unmoving in a blood smeared car with White sprawled across the back-seat, a bloody knife still clutched in his dead hand. Gibbs hadn't taken a breath until Tony moved. He had seen that Tony had liked the guy, even as Tony said it. Gibbs hadn't quite known how to show DiNozzo his support, only answering his empty eyed expression with 'I can see that'.

And that had been just the beginning of the assault on his feelings, when he had been confronted with a deadly sick DiNozzo. It had started with some horseplay around a vaguely addressed letter which Tony had claimed and opened. Unfortunately a cloud of semi white powder flew up, right into Tony's face. The entire team had gone into decontamination and isolation, but all blood samples were clear, except for DiNozzo's which showed that he had contracted a genetically altered strain of Y. pestis.

While DiNozzo had started coughing his lungs out in Bethesda, Gibbs had gone looking for an antidote. Unfortunately none existed, only a 15 percent chance of survival for this medieval sickness. Of all deaths possible in their line of work, he had never envisioned his Agent succumbing to pneumonic plague. So he had refused the thought. Instead he had told Tony 'You. Will. Not. Die.', wacking him almost gently on the head for emphasis. Then he had left, confident that Tony would survive, only to return next morning to take his turn at DiNozzo's bedside.

That episode had left Gibbs shaken, even now reliving the never ending coughs had him feeling cold. He got up and refilled his cup from the coffee pot. Feeling that this would take some more time, he got out a pack of cornflakes and milk, and set them on the table to eat while he thought back to another time.

He should have known better, but he had sent Tony on another undercover mission. Toni and Ziva had impersonated a married couple of assassins. Jean-Paul and Sophie Renier had had a contract for an undisclosed target at the US Marine Corps birthday ball. All Gibbs had had to worry about the first day, had been whether or not the sounds coming from the hotel bedroom were as fake as they were supposed to be. A full screen look at DiNozzo in MTAC had done nothing to reassure him.

Gibbs sighed, he'd instituted rule twelve to save heartache all around. Not that he'd expected it to hold forever, but as long as he could terrify his agents into holding to the rule, all the better. Crunching on the cornflakes, he returned his thoughts to the undercover operation.

A first contact was established, but they had gotten no identity at dinner either for the intended victim or the person having hired the Reniers. The next morning they had caught the FBI staking out their fake couple. Back at NCIS headquarters, FBI Senior Agent Tobias Fornell and Gibbs had agreed about their agencies working together. So when his dream team had disappeared off the elevator, he'd had plenty of backup to work with. But he had worried. Even more so since he'd realized that the Reniers themselves were the target. Knowing that his agents would try to get back to their room, he had put a trap in place, where they'd caught first one assassin, then another in Ziva's company. Worried even more now, he'd run with Ziva to deliver Tony from the room the agents had been held captive in. When he had heard noise of a beating from inside the room his breath had hitched, only to resume upon finding DiNozzo having the upper hand, so to speak.

Of course there had been other instances of danger, but often it was immediate, and over before he could start worrying. One thing Gibbs was sure of, if he hadn't gone grey before, Tony would have achieved it all on his own. Finished with the cornflakes, he cleaned up and got ready to go see Tony play on the local amateur basketball team. DiNozzo had given him that puppy dog eyed look when he'd asked him to come watch. Gibbs had only responded with a stare, but he'd only worry that DiNozzo would hurt himself if he didn't go.

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- tbc -


End file.
